here? What unknown region had I landed upon? The people that inhabited it must be gentle and amiable, and of elegant tastes, for they loved downy beds, fragrant flowers, and rose-coloured curtains.

While I lay thus musing, the tones of a harp reached my ear. Presently, they were accompanied by a female voice. It came from the room below; but in the profound stillness of my chamber, not a modulation was lost. My sisters were all considered good musicians, and sang very tolerably; but I had never heard a voice like this. There was no attempt at difficult execution, or striking effect; but there were exquisite inflexions, and tender turns, which art could not reach. Nothing but feeling and sentiment could produce them. It was soul breathed forth in sound. I was always alive to the influence of music; indeed, I was susceptible of influences of every kind-sounds, colours, shapes, and fragrant odours. I was the very slave of sensation.

I lay mute and breathless, and drank in every note of this syren strain. It thrilled through my whole frame, and filled my soul with melody and love. I pictured to myself, with curious logic, the form of the unseen musician. Such melodious sounds and exquisite inflexions could only be produced by organs of the most delicate flexibility. Such organs do not belong to coarse vulgar forms; they are the harmonious results of fair proportions, and admirable symmetry. A being so organised, must be lovely.

Again my busy imagination was at work. I called to mind the Arabian story of a prince, borne away during sleep by a good genius, to the distant abode of a princess, of ravishing beauty. I do not pretend to say that I believed in having experienced a similar transportation; but it was my inveterate habit to cheat myself with fancies of the kind, and to give the tinge of illusion to surrounding realities.

The witching sound had ceased, but its vibrations still played round my heart, and filled it with a tumult of soft emotions. At this moment, a self-upbraiding pang shot through my bosom. "Ah, recreant!" a voice seemed to exclaim, "is this the stability of thine affections? What! hast thou so soon forgotten the nymph of the fountain? Has one song, idly piped in thine ear, been sufficient to charm away the cherished tenderness of a whole summer?"

The wise may smile--but I am in a confiding mood, and must confess my weakness. I felt a degree of compunction at this sudden infidelity, yet I could not resist the power of pre

sent fascination. My peace of mind was destroyed by conflicting claims. The nymph of the fountain came over my me mory, with all the associations of fairy footsteps, shady groves, soft echoes, and wild streamlets; but this new passion was produced by a strain of soul-subduing melody, still lingering in my ear, aided by a downy bed, fragrant flowers, and rosecoloured curtains. "Unhappy youth!" sighed I to myself, "distracted by such rival passions, and the empire of thy heart thus violently contested by the sound of a voice, and the print of a footstep!"

(To be continued.)

THE MAN OVERBOARD.

A SKETCH.

"MEET her, quartermaster !" hailed the officer of the deck; "hold on, every body!"

Torn from my grasp upon the capstan by a mountain wave which swept us in its power, I was borne over the lee-bulwarks; and a rope which I grasped in my passage, not being belayed, unrove in my hands, and I was buried in the sea.

"Man overboard!" rang along the decks. "Cut away the life-buoy !"

Stunned and strangling, I rose to the surface, and instinc tively struck out for the ship; while, clear above the roar of the storm, and the dash of the cold, terrible sea, the loud thunder of the trumpet came full on my ear:

"Man the weather main and maintop-sail braces; slack the lee ones; round in; stand by to lower away the lee-quarter boat!"

My first plunge for the ship, whose dim outline I could scarcely perceive, in the almost pitchy darkness of the night, most fortunately brought me within reach of the life-buoy grating. Climbing upon this, I used the faithless rope, still in my hand, to lash myself fast; and, thus freed from the fear of immediate drowning, I could more quietly watch and wait for

rescue.

The ship was now hidden from my sight; but, being to leeward, I could with considerable directness make out her whereabout, and judge of the motions on board. Directly, a signallantern glanced at her peak; and oh! how brightly shone that solitary beam on my straining eye!-for, though rescued from

Immediate peril, what other succour could I look for, in that fearful swell, on which no boat could live a moment? What could I expect, save a lingering, horrid death?

Within a cable's length lay my floating home, when ten minutes before not a lighter heart than mine was enclosed by her frowning bulwarks; and though so near that I could hear the rattling of her cordage, and the rustling thunder of her canvass, I could also hear those orders from her trumpet which extinguished hope.

"Belay all with that boat!" said a voice that I knew right well; "she can't live a minute!"

My heart died within me, and I closed my eyes in despair. Next fell upon my ear the rapid notes of the drum beating to quarters, with all the clash, and tramp, and roar of a night alarm; while I could also faintly hear the musterings of the divisions, which was done to ascertain who was missing. Then came the hissing of a rocket, which, bright and clear, soared to heaven; and again falling, its momentary glare was quenched in the waves.

Drifting from the ship, the hum died away but see-that sheet of flame!-the thunder of a gun boomed over the stormy sea. Now the blaze of a blue-light illumines the darkness, revealing the tall spars and white canvass of the ship, still near me!

Maintop there!" came the hail again ; to leeward?"

"do you see him

The ship now remained stationary, with her lights aloft, but I could perceive nothing more for some minutes: they have given me up for lost!

That I could see the ship, those on board well knew, provided I had gained the buoy but their object was to discover me, and now several blue-lights were burnt at once on various parts of the rigging. How plainly could I see her rolling in the swell!-at one moment engulfed, and in the next rising clear above the wave, her bright masts and white sails glancing, the mirror of hope, in this fearful illumination; while I, covered with the breaking surge, was tossed wildly about, now on the crest, now in the trough of the sea.

"There he is, Sir! right abeam!" shouted twenty voices, as I rose upon a wave.

"Man the braces!" was the quick, clear, and joyous reply of the trumpet: while, to cheer the forlorn heart of the drowning seaman, the martial tones of the bugle rung out, and the

shrill call of the boatswain piped, "Haul taut and belay!" and the noble ship, blazing with light, fell off before the wind.

A new danger now awaited me; for the immense hull of the sloop-of-war came plunging around, bearing directly down upon me; while her increased proximity enabled me to discern all the minutiae of the ship, and even to recognise the face of the first lieutenant, as, trumpet in hand, he stood on the forecastle.

Nearer yet she came, while I could move only as the wave tossed me! and now, the end of her flying jib-boom is almost over my head!

"Hard a-port!" hailed the trumpet, at this critical moment : "round in weather-braces: right the helm!"

The spray from the bows of the ship, as she came up, dashed over me, and the increased swell buried me for an instant under a mountain-wave; emerging from which, there lay my ship, hove-to, not her length to windward!

"Garnet," hailed the lieutenant from the lee-gangway, "are you there, my lad ?"

66

Ay, ay, Sir!" I shouted in reply; though I doubted whether, in the storm, the response could reach him: but the thunder-toned cheering which, despite the discipline of a manof-war, now rung from the decks and rigging, put that fear at rest, and my heart bounded with rapture, in the joyous hope of a speedy rescue.

"All ready?" hailed the lieutenant again; "heave!" and four ropes, with small floats attached, were thrown from the ship and fell around me. None, however, actually touched me; and for this reason the experiment failed; for I could not move my unwieldly grating, and dared not leave it; for by so doing, I might in that fearful swell miss the rope, be unable to regain my present position, and drown between the two chances of escape.

I was so near to the ship, that I could recognise the faces of the crew on her illuminated deck, and hear the officers as they told me where the ropes lay; but the fearful alternative I have mentioned caused me to hesitate, until I, being so much lighter than the vessel, found myself fast drifting to leeward. I then resolved to make the attempt, but as I measured the distance of the nearest float with my eye, my resolution again faltered, and the precious and final opportunity was lost! Now, too, the storm, which, as if in compassion, had temporarily lulled, roared again in full fury; and the safety of the ship required that she should be put upon her course.

* *

A DAY AT RAVENNA.

On a gloomy evening, I found myself crossing the broad plains contiguous to the ancient city of Ravenna. These extensive fields serve chiefly for pasturing, and their monotonous aspect is only diversified by a few stunted trees and patches of rice. Nearer the Adriatic, however, the eye is relieved by the appearance of a noble forest of pines, which extends for the space of several miles along the shore. The branches of these trees, as is common in Italy, have been, by repeated trimmings, concentrated at the top; and most of them being lofty, a complete canopy is formed, beneath which one walks in that woodland twilight so peculiar and impressive. The effect is enhanced here, by the vicinity of the sea, whose mournful anthem or soothing music mingles with the wind-hymns of the forest aisles. As we emerged from a magnificent church that stands in the midst of this solitude, the interior columns of which were transported from Constantinople, no living object disturbed the profound repose of the scene, but a group of fine cattle, instinctively obeying the intimations of nature, and slowly returning to their domiciles. I found no difficulty in realizing that this scenery, when arrayed in the dreamy influences of such an hour, should prove congenial to the poetic mood, and wondered not that Byron, during his long residence at Ravenna, found so much pleasure in coursing through this quiet country, and along the adjacent shore.

The old city, like Venice, to whose triumphant arms, after so many fierce wars, it was at last subjected, rose from the marshes, and although apparently at a considerable distance from the sea, presents, even at the present day, abundant indications of its marine foundation: and among them, the traveller observes with regret the obliterating traces of a humid air, in the discoloured and corroded frescos of the church. One of the most valuable of these, however, has been singularly well preserved, considering that it has withstood the combined effects of dampness and removal from its original position; a process involving no little risk. This beautiful specimen is at present fixed in the sacristy of the cathedral. It represents the angel visiting Elijah in the desert; and dimmed as are its tints, by time and moisture, no one can gaze upon the sweet face of the angel, radiant with youth, and contrast it with the calm, aged countenance and gray locks of the sleeping prophet, without recognizing that peculiar grace which marks the creations